VINELAND — While completing his assigned route, a substitute bus driver for the Vineland Board of Education mistakenly picked up a four-year-old girl and then left the child alone on the bus for about an hour after completing his run.

The child had been waiting for her regular bus in the area of Park Avenue and Sylvester Drive with a family member about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. The child was headed to the Dallago Learning Center on South 6th Street.

Substitute bus driver William L. Bartley, 33, 1900 block of North East Avenue, stopped the bus directly in front of them and asked if the child belonged on the bus, according to Vineland police. The girl mistakenly got on board.

Bartley continued to pick up additional children along the route and dropped them off at the D'Ippolito School on North Valley Avenue, according to police.

Bartley, of Vienland, then drove the bus to Wallace School on North Mill Road, where he parked it. He exited the bus without checking for any remaining children and went home.

The four-year-old girl remained alone on the bus.

The family member who had been waiting with the four-year-old child realized soon later that “something didn't seem right” and contacted the child’s mother, who was at work.

The child's mother called the school and was told that her daughter never got there.

The Vineland Police Juvenile Unit was contacted and immediately started checking for the missing four-year-old.

The girl was located unharmed on the school bus about an hour later by school board employees who also went looking for the girl.

The girl was reunited with her family.

The investigation revealed that the child wasn't on the list of students to be picked up by Bartley, according to police.

It was also determined that Bartley didn’t check the bus for any students after dropping them off at D'Ippolito School and never checked the bus when he parked at Wallace School, police said.

Bartley was charged with one count of endangering the welfare of a child and released on a summons to appear in court, police said.